Swamp Boys has been selected as one of the teams competing on the Destination America TV Show BBQ Pitmasters! Details haven’t been released yet but as we can we will fill you in. Thanks to all of my sponsors who have helped us get to this point: BBQr’s Delight, Butcher BBQ, 3 Eyz BBQ, Wicked Q, and Grizzly Coolers!

I qualified and was invited to compete in the Florida BBQ Association’s Triple Crown Championship held in Perry Florida this past weekend. I was the last to arrive and got set up way back in the woods, a pretty good hike to turn in. All of the best teams in the FBA were there and the competition was stiff. When the awards were over and done with, I had a 1st place in chicken, a 1st place in ribs, and a 7th place in brisket which was good enough for Grand Champion! I was totally surprised and humbled. As GC I also won a new Jack’s Old South cooker which was very cool! Before I got back to my site I had a trade offer on the JOS that I couldn’t pass up. I am now the proud new owner of a Lang 48″ Hybrid Deluxe Patio Smoker!

Big congrats to my friend Terry of Git-R-Smoked for winning RGC, and all the others who heard their name called.

Thank you to my sponsors: 3 Eyz BBQ, Butcher BBQ, and BBQr’s Delight. These companies all have great products that help me produce the best barbecue I can, week after week.

I am happy to announce that there are seats available for my Swamp Boys Q School, which will be held Oct. 6-7 in Venice FL, on the beautiful Myakka River. The class will be at Rambler’s Rest RV Resort in Venice, beginning at 1pm Saturday and ending at approximately 2:30pm Sunday. A block of seats have already been reserved for the sponsors of the Venice FBA contest, so the remaining seats are very limited. This is the only planned class for the remainder of 2012.

Print and fill out the application and mail to me with your payment or deposit to reserve your spot today!

Another year of Dillard is in the books. Amy kept up her tradition of getting a top 3 call in every dessert she’s entered which was awesome! I was excited about how my cook went but the judges didn’t feel the same way. I did manage a tenth place call in brisket to keep from getting shut out though. A big congratulations to JOS on GC and Bubba Latimer on RGC in a super-tough field. Friend Jeff Campbell added another perfect score in brisket to his collection! Florida was well represented and got a lot of calls. Now it’s time to strap on the feed bag and head over to the Dillard House in an hour or so for a big ole lunch 🙂

The smokers arrived on Wednesday and they looked great! I worked late into the night pushing them up onto my trailer and securing them down for the 7 hour drive north to Thomaston. Some of the roads in GA can be pretty rough so I wanted to be extra careful.

Normally when you get a new pit the first thing you do is light a fire in it to get it seasoned and begin learning its characteristics. Unfortunately I didn’t have any extra time to learn them this time since I was already at the contest. And this was a big contest, with 69 pro teams competing along with a taping of the TV show “BBQ Pitmasters”. But I felt confident and was excited to cook on them, so there was no turning back now.

Of course with new pits come new surprises and this time was no different. Through a combination of my inexperience with pellet cookers and weak power at my site, I woke up at 5am expecting to find my butts and briskets well on their way to being finished. Instead the pellet cooker was cold and the food temp’d out at a measley 120°. In other words I was about 4 hours behind schedule of where I wanted to be. Not good! I seriously thought about packing up and heading home but regrouped and decided to make the best of it. I am not a “hot and fast” cooker, but guys do it every weekend with great results so it was time for me to give it a try. For the sake of time let me just say that I was able to get extra charcoal from Rescue Smokers, LJ Smokin’, and Finely Ready BBQ. I got my new stickburner up to 300° and kept it there all morning. I had all 4 meats on it at the same time and by the time the awards were over I had taken a 4th in Pork and a 3rd in Brisket, securing me 3rd overall in a field of 69. It goes without saying that I was more than satisfied with my results, especially after my early setback. And as happy as I was to take 3rd, I was even more happy to watch my brothers from Unknown BBQ (Q School grads) win Grand Champion in their first trip to GA and in this very tough field! These guys are on fire!

As always, a big thanks to my sponsors: 3 Eyz BBQ, Butcher BBQ, and BBQr’s Delight. These companies all have great products that help me produce the best barbecue I can, week after week.